An Evening Full of Merit

12 May 2009

Word of the Evening: MERIT (excellence, value, virtue)

So, what's the merit all about this evening? Well, first of all the Ebullient TME is back for his second round.. that's right! TM Lucas Ng took control of the evening once again as the TME and boy, did he struggle to use the word "Merit"..hehe, not so easy as "Ebullient" eh? :P

Dinner was ready by 6.15 p.m and 'ting-ting-ting', the lovely Timer, Carmen, rang the bell to usher everyone in to kickstart the night's event. "Kindly switch off or put your mobile phones on silent mode. Speakers are reminded not to infringe on...," Ms Ong Siew Ming as the SAA started off. Lim Sze Yue standing-in as President took the stage as The Man (Mr Joshua George) had an urgent matter to attend to just before the meeting. Lucas then warmed the audience after introducing his team of roleplayers with his 'oh-so-desperate' attempt trying to use the word 'merit' (LOL) before handing over to Amy Choo who was the Table Topics Master.

The evening of excellence continued with Ms Amy Choo's array of interesting topics. In short, I'll say IT'S CARTOON TIME! ^^ Mr Joshua George stood up strong and confident until the moment his topic was announced.. You Are Superman. Tell Us How You Would Celebrate Mother's Day With Your Mom. XD Not a problem at all for this seasoned speaker..he said he would lift his mum and fly her all over the world, from the ruins of the Pyramids in Egypt to the famed Eiffel Tower in Paris. Mr Raghu, the young man jumped at his 2nd attempt in impromptu speaking and got the topic... Why Do You Want To Be Doraemon? Fantastic flow of ideas and a composed delivery manner from him. Another truly confident speaker we have. See? A Meritful evening, isn't it? Then, we had Lavanya who spoke on Bugs Bunny to Promote Nasi Lemak in Australia! Another unique style of delivery, she disagreed with the idea and explained her reasons with so much wit. You see..you don't really have to agree with the TTM's topics! Excellent! And we then have what I would say, the best topic one can ever get, You are Spiderman. Explain Your Process of Cleaning The Toilet.. -.-" Luckily, we had an equally good speaker (as good as the title....lol) to tackle the topic, and it was none other than...Lucas Ng! Smart boy..haha.. Shirley was next. Her first time to the meeting and her first time taking centrestage. The brave young lady showed no signs of backing out and went on to explain Why Batman is Superior Than All The Other Heroes! I can tell you this..Spiderman was being bombarded many, many times during her 2-minute speech. Very intelligent.. =D

What is this?! Superman, Doraemon, Bugs Bunny... A rather childish topics! If you are in this position, let me assure you that the topics given were one of the most challenging and out of the norm. The speakers who took the topics were indeed presented with an opportunity to speak off the cuff AND speak with boundless imagination. All 5 of them took the bull by the horns and delivered in a mature manner with so much to learn from them. I stand corrected.

Phew, interesting, interesting, and interesting. These speakers not only know how to speak with confidence, they sure do know how to tickle your bones! Not enough, you say? Well, we had Ms Foo Li Hwa (Yes, she's back!!!) entertained us with her string of jokes. Our dearest Humour Master evidently displayed her merit and gave the audience another heartily "laughing session".How A Married Couple Could End Up in A Fight... my goodness..that was just brilliant! Grace Chong then gave her evaluation on the Table Topics Speakers performance. Great job!

5-minute break!

Ong Siew Ming gave her very first prepared speech. The Icebreaker from the C&L Manual. She spoke on Myself and My Ambition and had the audience understand more of her as an individual with particular interest on her chosen career path. She aspires to be a successful lawyer and with that fine delivery of speech, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she becomes one. Let us all congratulate her on her first step with her excellent debut speech!! We are all looking forward to your next speech!

LIM SZE YUE was next with his 4th project from the Special Occasion Speeches manual. A speech was given with the objective to present an award. The speech was entitled Best Toastmasters 2008/2009. A well-projected roleplay speech by the speaker who however, tasted a pinch of reality when he read the name of the award recipient wrongly. It showed the lack of preparation and lack of attention when it comes to details. So, keep in note, fellow Toastmasters! (hehe..very malu, you know..;) Nonetheless, I think the audience do recognised the effort shown, especially with that trophy Ms Irene "received", it should make the deal! Hehe..

JOSHUA GEORGE came in third to give his 5th speech from the Special Occasion Speeches manual, whereby a speech was given in recognition of him receiving the Best Lecturer Award from Datin Ong. Hehe.. As usual, the speaker was in full gear charging ahead with his confidently structured speech thanking everyone he had to thank (but not me..) in obliging with his duties and passion to teach. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, at the very end of his speech, SCTMC is proud to announce that we have produced an Advanced Communicator Bronze speaker! Yes, that's right! Mr Joshua George have completed 10 speeches in the Advanced Manual Series and if you could recall, our President here got his Competent Communicator title in the same term! Yap, that means he has been working his butt off to achieve a double milestone in his TM journey this term. Kudos to you! See, meritful evening isn't it?? XD

General Evaluator, SK RATNAM, DTM (EXTOL TMC) took over the next session and invited the assignment speech evaluators, Jess Foong (UNITAR TMC), Irene Lee (Crystal TMC) and Stephen Fernando (PJ Hilton TMC) respectively for their report. The roleplayers then presented their report and they are: Carmen as Timer, Ibe as Ah Counter and Jee Aik (HELP TMC) as the Grammarian. Mr SK Ratnam then presented his general evaluation of the evening's meeting. Thanks to Ms Ng Siew Tho (Crystal TMC) and all other guests who came and supported us.

That's a wrap from me! Meeting ended at around 8.35 p.m and it's then Lotus meeting time, downstairs! hehe..

Next evening with you: 26 May 2009. Same time, save venue.

Til' then, have an Ebullient day ahead! Cheers! (man..this word ebullient is starting to get irritating, yet it's so convenient! Don't you agree?? Haha.. See you all!)

Ehem..read this, Lucas..


Meritfully prepared by,
LIM SZE YUE
VPPR ^^

Quote of the Evening: BY THE AGE OF 9, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. I AM 50 AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO! by SK Ratnam XD